Calendars and Almanacs—Introduction (h)

A year ago on Round and Square (1 April 2012)—Hurtin' Country: Good Ole Boys
Click here for the first post in the Round and Square introductory series "Calendars and Almanacs" 

[a] Historical RF

This is one post in a multi-part introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs." Click below for the other posts in the series:

CA 1          CA 2         CA 3          CA 4          CA 5  

CA 6          CA 7         CA 8          CA 9          CA 10         CA 11

 

The “black-and-white” contents begin, at least in the most complete almanacs, with a section on meteorological phenomena and agricultural sayings. Every society has many similar sayings, whether or not they are compiled in a written document; many persist long beyond their agricultural origins. Americans have several. It is said that corn stalks should be “Knee high by the Fourth of July.” The rhyme is key to making the phrase memorable, but it also is a significant date—American Independence Day, when people relax and take stock of the progress of summer, about halfway through it. Outdated though the concept might be in an era of steroidal botany, it persists. Two examples follow for a text for the almanac text, which is arranged from the beginning of the lunar year to the end.

           立春落雨至清明  

          With the beginning of spring, 
          rain falls until the Qingming Festival.

          大寒不寒，人馬不安
          If the “Great Cold” period is not sufficiently cold, 
          people and horses will be agitated.

[b] Eye-tic Method (眼跳法)

One of the most fascinating examples of cultural reference in the entire almanac is the section entitled 眼跳法, “Eye-twitch Method” (Illustration B).  The idea is that certain common physical symptoms—or phenomena in the natural or cultural world—give small glimpses of the future. This is common in many societies.  The Chinese almanac combines the power of categorization with lived experience to create a peculiarly detailed set of components for such folk sayings.  It illustrates the power of writing to take the ordinary and bring it to a level of detail that would be impossible in an oral culture. The various categories of “events” in this section include “eye-jumping” (eye-twitch), “ringing in the ears,” “burning of the ears,” “flushing of the face,” “shivers,” “being startled,” “losing articles of clothing,” “boiling kettles,” “barking dogs,” and “chirping birds.”  

In an earlier era dominated by oral culture, one might imagine a saying such as “A twitch in the eye brings fortune high.” One “event,” one reading. The almanac brings the classificatory power of language to a level of detail that overpowers such simplicity.  First, it breaks the event into two overarching categories—right and left eyes. As one of my Chinese students exclaimed in class when first seeing this section (the traditional almanac is not common in the People’s Republic of China today), “Now I know why my mother always asks ‘which eye?’”  One event, two readings. The complexity expands several fold, however, when, the almanac adds readings for each of the twelve two-hour periods of the day—for left and right. One event, twenty-four readings. The complexity would seem to argue for highly detailed and specific explanations, but that is not the case. They are all terse, three character interpretations that are perfunctory and generally unhelpful as guides to action.  For a twitch in the eye in the early morning, the almanac has the following message.

           卯時

          左貴客來
          右平安吉
          Mao Hour (5:00-7:00 a.m.)
          Left: A noble guest will arrive
          Right: Peace and auspiciousness

[c] Ubiquitous RF

Several other sections give the meanings of dreams, lucky days to do certain activities, ways to find the spirit “in charge” of a person for the year, and so forth.  A further example is a section that deals with time, space, and fortune.  It gives the auspicious direction for the day (one each for all sixty days in the jiazi cycle), for each of ten concepts or activities. The idea is that if one is going to the bank to seek a particularly important loan, one will start one’s trip in the direction of wealth for that day.  The same goes for other activities—detailed or general. If the direction of death, for example, is due west on the day of a funeral, the traditional funeral cortege will proceed slowly west…before making an arc to the cemetery, which may actually happen to be northeast, or southwest, or some other direction. Traditional Chinese fiction has many examples of this directional action, but it is all contained on a one-page chart crammed into the middle contents of the almanac. 

          Day Eighteen (辛巳) of Sixty 

          Happiness—Southwest
          Nobility—Northeast
          Wealth—Due east
          Auspiciousness—Due west
          Birth/life—Northwest
          Opening—Southwest
          Spirits—Due west
          Ghosts—Northwest
          Death—Southeast

[d] Telegraph Numeration Chart

A final reference section will help to give a sense of the almanac that is both responsive to a changing world and, in many ways, frozen in time—the Telegraphic Numeration chart (Illustration D). It has arranged almost 8,000 Chinese characters in order according to the traditional pattern of the 214 “radicals” 部首 that are used as primary sorters of the written language.  Thus, the character 仁 would come before 儀, since the first is radical nine (the sloping strokes to the left) plus two extra strokes (二), while the second is radical nine with thirteen extra strokes (義). The character 而 is radical 128, so its number would be higher yet—all of the way to the last full character radical 214 (龠)—number 7900 on the chart.  It is followed by variants, punctuation, and assorted miscellaneous characters.

So, if a latter day Mencius (the great philosopher lived 372-289 BCE) wished to send a telegraph with one of his most memorable phrases—the one that he uses to chasten King Hui of Liang in the first of his essays—he could write it in Chinese, English translation, or telegraphic code.

          仁義而已矣

          (There is) humanity and righteousness and nothing else!
          0088  5030  5079  1571  4248

Adding an exclamation mark—not really necessary, since the last character serves that rhetorical function in classical Chinese—would mean adding “9982.” It is a useful chart, as far as it goes, but it has no sorting function.  It is a sea of graphs—more than 8,000 characters crammed onto fourteen text pages, with the assumption that the user has memorized the sequence of radicals and can find them without further help. It has no meanings written in any language, and assumes that the user knows exactly what she wants to write.  And for all of that, it is frozen in time.  It is well over a century past its use as a telegraphic aid, and at least twenty years beyond the last uses made of it for some printing purposes.  But there it sits, taking up fourteen pages of the almanac’s contents—filling space and echoing an earlier era.

This is one post in a multi-part introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs." Click below for the other posts in the series:

CA 1          CA 2         CA 3          CA 4          CA 5  

CA 6          CA 7         CA 8          CA 9          CA 10         CA 11

[e] Pondered RF